In one type of conventional paging system, described for example in United Kingdom Patent Application 2,208,777A, published Apr. 12, 1989, a voice mail unit automatically pages a subscriber each time the voice mail unit records a message for the subscriber from a caller. More specifically, the voice mail unit commands a paging unit to send a radio signal to the subscriber. The paging signal may indicate the telephone number of the caller, or may merely indicate that an unidentified caller has recorded a voice message for the subscriber. However, in such conventional systems, the caller hangs up his (or her telephone after causing a message to be recorded in the voice mail unit.
Until the present invention, it has not been known how automatically to establish a direct telephone connection between a caller and a paged party using radio signals restricted to a specific local area. Nor has it been known how a caller may access a local area telephone network (sometimes denoted herein as a "PBX" system since many conventional local area telephone networks employ private branch exchange, or "PBX," equipment), command an element of the PBX system to send a limited-range low power RF paging signal to a party, and remain connected to the system until the paged party initiates a simple cross-connection (typically, an analog cross-connection) to establish a direct telephone connection with the caller.